The concerts feature two world premieres: And the Movement of the Tongue, a new work for string quartet and electronics by San Francisco’s celebrated media artist Pamela Z, inspired by the diversity of accents heard on the city’s streets; and String Quartet No. 3 “The Mezzanine,” a new piece by Nathaniel Stookey, who at age 17 was the youngest composer ever commissioned for the San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music Series.

The program also features the West Coast premiere of Carrying the Past by Dan Becker, chair of the composition department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Pieces from Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, and Turkey, heard in “musical translations” by area composer Stephen Prutsman, complete the program. (Watch video interviews with the composers here.)

Says David Harrington, Founder and Artistic Director of the quartet, “The idea of putting together a program of local music that is so varied, with compositional voices that are so distinct, is thrilling. If you look at all of the cultures and traditions around the world that we’ve explored in our music, you’re really holding up a mirror to San Francisco’s own incredibly diverse culture… Here, ‘Listen Local’ really means ‘Listen Global.’” Stookey is a San Francisco native and UC Berkeley graduate; Z and Becker have made the Bay Area their home since the early eighties, Prutsman since the early nineties.